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an inkling what is going on. When I get back from my
Caribbean trip, I'll throw a dinner party and we can all discuss
our plans. Until then, be patient, my dear Gina.'
She managed a smile. 'OK, Sir Dermot.'
She glanced at the clock, preparing to leave, but Sir Dermot
began speaking again, his face curious and amused.
'Tell me about this Chinese girl. A real beauty, I'm told.
How long has his affair with her been going on? I hadn't heard a
whisper, and my sources are usually very good.'
'I don't know anything about it,' Gina said in a tight, careful
voice. 'Nor do I want to!'
That wasn't true, of course. She was eaten up with bitter
curiosity, but she would have died rather than admit as much to
anyone. Not that anybody dared mention it. Hazel might have
done, if she had been there, but Gina was working with Sophie
now, and, pleasant though she found her new colleague, there
wasn't the same rapport, the same I rank exchanges. Sophie was
friendly and eager to say the right thing; she never mentioned
Nick Caspian or Colette Tse, and nor did anybody else at
least, not to Gina's face.
Walking across the plaza next day, Gina heard somebody
say Nick's name, and tensed, noticing two girls out of the corner
of her eye, standing in front of Torelli's, looking at the food in
the window. Gina paused behind a palm tree to eavesdrop,
kneeling down, pretending to be tightening a small bow on one
of her black shoes.
'Is it true he's taken Colette Tse with him?' a small blonde
girl asked, rather absently, her real Interest on the display of
salads. 'I like their crab salads; they're very low in calories but
they're delirious, Maureen.'
'No, I'm having cheese and pickles, and damn the calories!'
said the other, a plump brunette Gina recognised as one of the
girls in the secretarial pool.
'Are you dumping your diet again, Maureen? Where's your
will-power?'
'It's cold and I'm starving,' Maureen defiantly snapped back.
'Anyway, as I said, I was working in Accounts this morning, that
little dark girl is off sick, the one with the very long hair and big
teeth...'
'Jennifer?'
'No, Janet. Well, I'm doing her job until she's back
collating the editorial expenses sheet, and I tell you what, some
of those reporters put in some amazing claims... talk about
works of fiction! I'm glad I don't have to decide whether or not
to pay up on them. Anyway, the whole office was talking about
Nick Caspian and Colette Tse, and Rosie Lloyd said... you know
Rosie...'
'I don't think so.'
'Yes, you do! Curls her hair herself and it uncurls as soon as
we get a drop of rain.'
'Doesn't ring any bells with me!'
'Kay, don't be daft! You had a row with her in the canteen
over the last piece of salmon and broccoli pie, last week!'
'Oh, her! I didn't know her name was Rosie. It doesn't suit
her; she's too skinny and pale.'
'Yes, well, she said Colette had rung up from Luxembourg to
say she was there on official business, it wasn't to come out of
her leave and she'd be away for a week! Well, obvious, isn't it,
Kay? He's there, so is she! Don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to
work that one out, do you?'
'I like her calling it official business!' the blonde girl said,
chuckling.
'Maybe he sees it as part of her job! He looks as if he would
be pretty ruthless, blackmail girls into bed without a blink.'
'He wouldn't need to blackmail me,' Kay said dreamily. 'Just
a smile, that's all it would take! I think he's the sexiest guy I've
seen in years.'
'Oh, you! You said that about Jack Harrison, in Accounts,
and he's got a bald spot and wears hornrimmed glasses!'
'But have you seen him going home on his motorbike in his
black leathers? I can just imagine Nick Caspian in black
leather... I bet he'd be a walking dream.'
'Oh, let's order our lunch,' Maureen said, laughing. 'Or you'll
be too excited to eat.'
They vanished into Torelli's and Gina stood up and walked
slowly into the foyer. Her mind was in a state of wild confusion.
Nick had taken Colette to Luxembourg with him?
She acted like a robot, took the lift, up to her office, where
she could be alone, because Sophie was out to lunch and
wouldn't be back for half an hour, at least.
Gina shut the door and leaned on it, her eyes shut too. Oh,
God...Nick with Colette...pain beat inside her, like terrified
wings on the bars of a cage, as if her heart tried to escape her
body, leave behind the grief and anguish of her thoughts. She
couldn't even bear to imagine it. Yet, how to stop the images,
the pictures of them both together? She remembered Nick's lean,
powerful body naked in her own arms, the heat and passion of
his searching mouth, the aching sweetness as he arched above
her, in her, moving with her.
Gina groaned aloud, doubling up in agony, her arms across
her stomach as if she had cramp. 'Oh, Nick, Nick,' she hoarsely
breathed, then bit her lip so hard that a little spot of blood
appeared on the pink flesh.
No. Don't think, don't imagine it, she ordered herself. But
the visions still came, torturing her. The very idea of him
touching Colette like that was intolerable. He belonged to her.
The word surprised her she had never admitted she felt like
that before, even to herself, in the privacy of her thoughts. That
was how she felt, though. Nick was hers; he belonged to her, as
if he had her personal stamp on his forehead. Gina remembered
the poet Wyatt who had loved Anne Boleyn yet known that she
was giving herself to King Henry the Eighth. 'Noli me tangere,
for Caesar's I am,' Wyatt had said, in his bitter, tragic poem to
his lost love. 'Touch me not, for I am Caesar's,' was graven with
diamonds around her neck.
Gina felt that that was the way she belonged to Nick, and
Nick to her. And she wished violently that there were some way
to get that message across to Colette.
How could she, though? Nick was not her property, he could
do as he chose, and, apparently, he had chosen to take Colette to
Luxembourg and...
Think about something else! she hurriedly told herself, but
her thoughts would only go round in a circle. Why had she been
left to find out that way, eavesdropping on two girls she only
knew by sight?
Nobody had breathed a word to her, not even Roz but
everyone must have known. Except her. They must all have
been talking about it endlessly, but when she was around they
would hurriedly change the subject, talk of other things, while
secretly they watched her, knowing they knew something she
didn't know. Did they enjoy the sense of power that secret
knowledge gave them? Was that why they had been silent?
No, not Roz, she thought. Roz didn't say anything because
she couldn't bring herself to tell me; she knew how much it was
going to hurt me. And that was another humiliation, on top of all
the others she had suffered lately. It made it worse to know that
Roz understood what she was going through!
Gina drew herself up, lifting her russet head in a defiant little
jerk. She couldn't stop Roz guessing how she felt, but she didn't
have to let Roz see! Nobody must see anything. From now on
she must be on her guard against prying eyes, curious eyes, even
those of friends who loved her and cared what happened to her.
Damn Nick Caspian. From now on, she was wholeheartedly
behind Sir Dermot and his conspirators. In fact, she couldn't
wait to see Nick's face when the bomb exploded underneath
him!
A few days later she had a phone call from his secretary in
Luxembourg that Nick was on his way back to London, but
before his plane had touched down another message arrived, this
time for Nick.
Sophie took it while Gina was out, and was in a most [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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